Another Gaming PC Build for you approval!

[sleepyone]

I have after 2 false attempts the last year, finally been let out from underneath the thumb of SWOBO

Got £850 to spend on a complete new base unit, first pass is below, I'm sure prices will be a bit flexible at other sites just wondering if I have a fair balance in my components? Not interested in OC'ing, main use is gaming followed by video capture and photo editing?

This will have to last 3-6 years with little or no upgrades. So also do I need to think about anything in terms of future proofing? USB3.0 for example.

My xmas present this year will be a 1920*1080 monitor, so have to make do with my 22" widescreen for now.

PS my current build is INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6850 and a XFX 8800GTS XXX 640MB PCI-E with Win7 Home Premium which is starting to crash a bit to often for my liking even after a rebuild.

Intel® Core™ i5 3570 3.40GHz Socket LGA1155 - Retail. £165.60
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) Motherboard £129.98
SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 £199.99
Samsung 830 Series 128GB Sold State Hard Drive 2.5" Basic Kit - Retail £78.98
WD Caviar Green 500GB 64MB Cache Hard Drive SATA 6Gb/s - OEM £56.99
Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £40.99
Cooler Master 690 II Advanced Case - Black - No PSU £86.99
OCZ ZT Series 650 Watt 80PLUS Bronze Performance Full Modular PSU £74.99
TP-Link TP-WN781ND 150Mbps Wireless-N PCIe Adapter £13.99

Total £848.50

 

[sleepyone]

Actually just looking at it now would it be worth getting a cheaper motherboard and throwing another £50 at the GFX?

 

[Chox1988]

Actually just looking at it now would it be worth getting a cheaper motherboard and throwing another £50 at the GFX?

Yeah i would do that, save some on the mobo and get an nvidia 670 instead of the 7850.

Oh and get a corsair psu rather than ocz.

 

[sleepyone]

the 670 is too big a jump in price.

£309
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5
915MHz Core, 980MHz Boost, 1344 CUDA Cores, 2 x DVI, HDMI, DPort, PCIe 3.0

Respeced MB with the 670 takes price up to £920, £70 over my budget

Could dump the 500GB hdd for now, the 120GB would be fine for the first couple of months.

 

[sleepyone]

Further change to spec
Removed 500GB hdd
Replaced MB with £87 GIGABYTE GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) Motherboard
Replace PSU £74 Corsair TX 650W V2 ATX2.31 80 PLUS® Bronze Power Supply
GFX as above takes me to 844.50

 

[jassco]

Removed 500GB hdd

That's what I was going to suggest. Does your old computer not have parts that you can salvage? I'm thinking hard drives, wireless network card, PSU and even the case?

 

[Chox1988]

I'd do something like this personally,

*edited*

 

[sleepyone]

That's what I was going to suggest. Does your old computer not have parts that you can salvage? I'm thinking hard drives, wireless network card, PSU and even the case?

The wireless network card is going to be kept from it but apart from that not much really. I'm not putting a 6 year old HDD or PSU into a new build, especially when i think they are already dodgy

My current case is too small for the GFX card.

argh, just realized i need to add a DVD drive to that as well, my current one has stopped reading anything

 

[Deleted member 79803]

For the cash that's a great spec you've put together Chox.

I've been looking at what compromises you had to make to squeeze in that 670 in place of the 7850 in the 1st post and have to say there aren't many!

 

[Bigbud]

I'd do something like this personally,

image


Could get rid of the k version of the processor if 850 is dead strict

Epic Build I'd prefer a WD HD and would go for the Corsair 650TX instead as its a SeaSonic internals and has a 5 year warranty instead of the 3 year warranty

 

[sleepyone]

Nice spec Chox, hadn't looked at scan yet.

Can drop the wifi usb off that as got my current PCI card it's only G rated but seeing as how my DL speed in the house is 250kb/s

Only a fiver over...nice

 

[Chox1988]

Epic Build I'd prefer a WD HD and would go for the Corsair 650TX instead as its a SeaSonic internals and has a 5 year warranty instead of the 3 year warranty

Ta, Aye i was thinking about the corsair tx but it was a bit more dear i think, was shocked a 700w came in at £63.

I Edited to a non k processor as he wasnt fussed about oc'ing and added in a dvd drive, thinking it might be pushing the budget.

 

[Bigbud]

Actually did a similar build list for a mate this morning

 

[sleepyone]

I take it the 670 is big jump in performance over the 7850?

Changing to the 670 is the reason my budget has got tight all of a sudden

 

[Chox1988]

Actually did a similar build list for a mate this morning

image

Nice, Love the fractal design cases

Im in limbo as to where i'd order components from, ccl, scan, oc, ebuyer, aria, cant think out of that lot and possibly more where i'd go, to many options and to many one off bad stories.

Anyone heard from jay lately?

I take it the 670 is big jump in performance over the 7850?

Changing to the 670 is the reason my budget has got tight all of a sudden

Huge, the 7850 is good but the 670 is amazing, probably the best card out at the moment, will ultra everything.

 

[eiren]

Nice spec Chox, hadn't looked at scan yet.

Can drop the wifi usb off that as got my current PCI card it's only G rated but seeing as how my DL speed in the house is 250kb/s

Only a fiver over...nice

We'd mostly not advocate using Scan though... lots of us on here have had bad experiences with them, particularly when it comes to return faulty items.

Do a quick forum search for more detail.

 

[sleepyone]

Think i will put the psu up to the TX and still drop the 500gb.

As i'm going to have the system a while, 5 years might get used, certainly would have been with my current system.

Not going scan though, read too many scare stories on here.

 

[Bigbud]

Nice, Love the fractal design cases

Im in limbo as to where i'd order components from, ccl, scan, oc, ebuyer, aria, cant think out of that lot and possibly more where i'd go, to many options and to many one off bad stories.

Anyone heard from jay lately?

Huge, the 7850 is good but the 670 is amazing, probably the best card out at the moment, will ultra everything.

Love my 670

Personally I only use Ebuyer & Amazon but would use CCL or OC but there prices are usually higher due to postage ect.

 

[Chox1988]

Think i will put the psu up to the TX and still drop the 500gb.

As i'm going to have the system a while, 5 years might get used, certainly would have been with my current system.

Not going scan though, read too many scare stories on here.

Could keep the main hdd and drop down to a 64gb ssd which would allow you to get the tx while keeping in budget.

Im not sure i'd get on with sub 250gb storage and i really dont use much.

 

[sleepyone]

Looks like we have a winner My mate has a 6 month old DVD drive I can have so knock that off...i'm probably going to need some sata cables aren't I as everything is OEM?

Total £856.84 from ebuyer

EVGA GTX 670 2GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card £309.57
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX £86.43
Intel Core i5 3570 3.40GHz Socket 1155 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £164.78
Corsair TX 650W V2 PSU - 80plus Bronze Certified £69.45
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 1.5V Non-ECC Unbuffered £38.99
WD 500GB Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 3.5" SATA-III 6Gb/s - 7200RPM 16MB Cache £54.99
Samsung 64GB 830 Series SSD - 2.5" SATA-III - Read 520MB/s Write 120MB/s £55.00
Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced Case - USB3.0 version £77.63

 

[Chox1988]

Nice, you shouldnt need cables, my mobo came with them, imagine yours should to

 

[sleepyone]

Ok, thanks.

Will probably put in order tomorrow. Need to clear some space on credit card.

Maybe I will post pics too

Prepare for numerous pics of boxes...

 

[Deleted member 79803]

Not looking to spend you more money but if you're using ebuyer I'd be inclined to pay the extra fiver for what is arguably one of the best (if not the best) 670's on the market: Cheap Laptops, Computers and Cheap LCD TVs | Ebuyer.com

The extra fiver gets you a full length pcb (same as you'd see on a GTX680) with a far better cooler than the reference cards, meaning much cooler temps and near silent operation. Whilst I haven't had to put them to the test Gigabyte are supposedly one of the better manufacturers for warranty support and have a UK based returns centre which is good if you have any issues.

If you use Quidco don't forget to use that as I think ebuyer pay 2% cashback so would get you closer to the £850 mark

 

[Chox1988]

Not looking to spend you more money but if you're using ebuyer I'd be inclined to pay the extra fiver for what is arguably one of the best (if not the best) 670's on the market: Cheap Laptops, Computers and Cheap LCD TVs | Ebuyer.com

The extra fiver gets you a full length pcb (same as you'd see on a GTX680) with a far better cooler than the reference cards, meaning much cooler temps and near silent operation. Whilst I haven't had to put them to the test Gigabyte are supposedly one of the better manufacturers for warranty support and have a UK based returns centre which is good if you have any issues.

If you use Quidco don't forget to use that as I think ebuyer pay 2% cashback so would get you closer to the £850 mark

I think evga have the best warranty in the game, not that gigabytes is bad, but i would rank the 670's in order evga ftw, gigabyte, kfa2, evga. So for the extra fiver i'd do the same i think.

 

[Bigbud]

Not looking to spend you more money but if you're using ebuyer I'd be inclined to pay the extra fiver for what is arguably one of the best (if not the best) 670's on the market: Cheap Laptops, Computers and Cheap LCD TVs | Ebuyer.com

The extra fiver gets you a full length pcb (same as you'd see on a GTX680) with a far better cooler than the reference cards, meaning much cooler temps and near silent operation. Whilst I haven't had to put them to the test Gigabyte are supposedly one of the better manufacturers for warranty support and have a UK based returns centre which is good if you have any issues.)

Yep, an extra £5 well worth it